Let the Bough Break
by Chanteuse
Summary: AU post 3x20. With everything that's happened since Emma returned from New York, all she wants to do is run when she becomes overwhelmed. Regina, who has found new footing in life, isn't going to let Emma off the hook that easily. So if Emma is going to run back to New York with Henry, Regina's going with them.


**AN: Well. I don't really know what this is, but I needed to write it. Assume the finale never happened, and everything up to 3x20 -ish is canon. It assumes that everyone goes back in time, and that Zelena is defeated, but since I wrote a bunch of this before the finale aired, the details of what happened back in the past are glossed over.**

**It's unbeta'd, so I apologize for any mistakes I may have missed while proofreading. If anyone is interested in beta reading for me, feel free to drop me a PM. :)**

**Alright. It's been a while since I've posted anything, so any feedback would be wildly appreciated. **

**Thanks, and enjoy!**

* * *

**Let the Bough Break**

**Chapter One**

Somehow – miraculously – they all make it back from the past to present-day Storybrooke without having erased anyone's existence, or created any other paradoxes. Or so Emma thought.

They emerge from the time rift just in front of the well, exhausted but otherwise intact. Emma clutches the small velvet pouch containing Regina's heart, which they'd very nearly lost but for a timely blast of light magic from the Evil Queen herself.

She walks quickly to Regina who stands frozen a small distance away, a pained expression on her face. Emma follows her gaze and feels her heart sink a little.

Robin is currently locked tightly in an embrace with his previously-dead wife, his face contorted with emotion. It seems someone had been saved after all.

Emma quickly crosses the remaining distance to Regina, who gives her only a small glance in acknowledgement. She removes Regina's heart from its pouch. It's lighter than she'd figured it would be, distinctly red beneath a broken layer of black, but she's not really surprised all the same.

"Regina, do you want your heart back?"

Regina looks at her, and she looks so sad for a moment that Emma thinks she might say no. She nods eventually, and gives a small shrug as though she doesn't really care either way.

Gently, Emma reaches forward and places Regina's heart over the left side of Regina's chest. She focuses her magic, and gives a gentle push. Regina quietly gasps as Emma's hand sinks into her chest.

"You okay?" she asks.

When Regina doesn't answer, Emma looks and sees Robin lean down to gently kiss Marian. Regina's eyes are shining, and there's a resignation on her face that causes pangs of sympathy to stir in Emma's chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "We'll be at Granny's when you're ready." She lays a hand briefly on Regina's shoulder and walks back to check on her family.

**XXXXX**

What hurts the most right now is that she _understands_ Robin.

She understands that he saw an opportunity to save his wife – the mother of his child – and he'd taken it. She knows that if she'd been given an opportunity to save Daniel or her father as easily as Robin had managed to save Marian, well… She knows she would have taken it without hesitation.

And when she sees the smile on little Roland's face as he runs into his mother's arms, she can't find it in her to be angry.

"I'm sorry," he says, and she has no reason to doubt him, really. "I swear that I didn't know I'd be able to save her. I just…" He pauses and runs a hand through his hair. "I just saw her and I couldn't _not_ save her."

Regina's lips curl up in a small, sad smile. "I guess I did manage to give you a second chance, in a way. It just didn't end up being with me."

She can't bring herself to be mad with him when he looks so utterly sorry.

"It's okay," she whispers. And it is. Because he'd never really fallen out of love with Marian; she'd been ripped from him and Roland by death, and now that she's here, well… she knows those feelings have been rekindled. She also knows she'll never be able to compete. She isn't even sure if she wants to.

His eyes flood with relief, and she knows then definitively that her time with Robin has ended.

The feeling of not being chosen once again, and of seeing what she might've had slip away from her that stings. It's a familiar ache, but this time she'll be okay. Because she's changed. She's changed for Henry and she's changed for herself.

So she tells him. "I'll be okay. Go. Be with them." She nods to where Marian is holding Roland, staring at them with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Thank you, Regina." He says to her, then he turns back to his wife and his son.

His second chance.

In a way, though, she'd gotten her own second chance. Because as she watches Robin head back to his family, she is open to love, and every ache that comes with it.

xxxxx

"Come away with me, Swan," Hook says to her after pulling her away from everyone at Granny's, and her first reaction is to laugh in his face.

And then she realizes that he's serious.

He begins to tell her that he can give her a good life and a good future on board the Jolly Roger but she holds up a hand to stop him.

"Listen, thank you so much for the help you've given us; we couldn't have done this without you and I really appreciate it. But I need to stay here in this world. This is Henry's home. And…my family is here."

"Then I'll stay," he insists, "I'll – " but Emma holds up a hand and he once again falls silent. It isn't fair to him to let him stay around hoping for a relationship with her when it was something she simply doesn't want.

She breathes in deeply. "Don't stay on my account."

Hook looks at her, and she knows he's hurt, but it's not fair to him. He's a pirate, she thinks. He'll be okay.

"I'm sorry," she says. She can't be responsible for his happiness.

"So am I. Goodbye, Swan."

He gives her one last yearning look, and then he turns and walks away, his leather coat rippling out behind him.

**XXXXX**

She and Henry stay at Granny's for a while, but Regina never shows up. She sneaks glances over at the door, hoping Regina will be the next person to come through. It's easier to look at the door for Regina than it is to look to the other side of the diner at her beaming parents and little brother. She never does show up, though, and Emma begins to worry.

She hauls out her phone and fires off a quick text to Regina.

_Hey you ok? _ She writes.

Her phone buzzes obnoxiously against the table three minutes later. _Yes, just tired. I won't be coming by Granny's. Tell Henry I love him, and kiss him for me. _

She's about to reply when her son comes and rests his head on her shoulder.

"I want to go home," he murmurs, leaning against her.

"Oh. Okay," she says, "I know it's been a long day." She fishes the key to their room from her pocket and hands it to him.

"No, I want to go _home_. I want to sleep in my own bed."

"To Regina's?"

Henry nods.

"Okay," she says, and she sounds surprised to her own ears, even though she knows she shouldn't be. She just has to get used to the fact that she's no longer Henry's only mother. She never was.

"Thanks, Mom. Let's go."

**XXXXX **

Regina is surprised to see them on the other side of her door, though she's not at all unhappy to see her son.

"Hi, Mom," says Henry. "I want to sleep here tonight. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is, dear." She moves back to let them in.

"Thanks." He hugs her tightly, and Regina feels her throat tighten with emotion. He's gotten about three inches taller in their year apart, and it causes her real pain that she's missed it. She runs her fingers gently though his hair and wonders what else she's missed. It feels a little like she needs to get to know her son all over again, and that seems strangely okay right now, because with all that's happened it feels like she's got to get to know _herself_ all over again, too. And they can do this together.

She smiles as Henry pulls away from Emma, kisses her cheek and runs up the stairs.

"Goodnight, Moms," he says, but she's not ready to say goodnight just yet.

"Wait for me in the dining room," she tells Emma, and she follows her son up the stairs.

xxxxx

She realizes that he might be too old to be tucked in by his mother, but if that's how he feels, he doesn't say anything. She pulls his blankets over him and kisses him, just as she had every night for ten years before everything had fallen apart. Even when he'd withdrawn from her, she'd made sure to kiss him goodnight.

"I love you, my little prince." she says. "You have no idea how happy I am that you're back."

"I love you too, Mom." He smiles through a yawn. "Goodnight."

She turns off the light and closes his door.

She smiles as she heads downstairs to Emma. Henry is back in his bed, and he's calling her Mom again.

She can't remember why she ever thought she'd needed anything else.

**XXXXX**

"Would you like a drink?" She asks Emma as she enters the dining room.

"Please," Emma responds, "but no apple cider."

Regina smirks. She needs something stronger than apple cider tonight, too. She grabs her decanter of whisky.

She pours them both a generous amount and hands a tubler to Emma. They sit across from each other at the table, the bottle of whisky between them.

"Cheers," says Emma, holding her glass out.

Regina touches their glasses together. "Cheers."

And then she downs her entire drink is a few swallows, the alcohol pleasantly burning as it makes its way down her throat and into her belly. When she lowers her glass, she sees that Emma has done the same.

She doesn't even ask before she refills both of their glasses. They sip their drinks slowly this time.

They sit in silence for a while, and Regina thinks that it's nice – enjoyable, even. There's no awkwardness or tension and she thinks that she might like to have a relationship with Emma that feels like this silence someday.

Eventually, though, Emma clears her throat, and Regina is pulled from her thoughts.

"You know, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about Robin Hood."

Regina examines her for a moment, unsure as to whether Emma is mocking her or not. Her eyes are sincere, though, so Regina nods in acknowledgement.

"It's nothing," she says, talking another sip from her drink. And that was just it, wasn't it? It was a week of something that could have been so much more than 'nothing,' but in the end it'll only ever be a 'could have been', and though she'd literally given Robin her heart, she's glad that she'd decided to wait to open herself to him fully.

"What about the pirate?" She challenges.

"What about him?"

Regina arches an eyebrow. "Do I need to worry about him spending more time with my son?" She sounds surly, even to her own ears, and she hopes that Emma won't pick on her for it tonight.

Emma scoffs. "No. You said it yourself. He yearned, I didn't. That's it."

"Mmm," Regina hums into her glass, but what's meant to sound satisfied comes out sounding patronizing.

"It's true!" Emma insists. "He left!"

"I believe you, dear." She smirks. "He took that stupid coat with him, right?"

Emma snorts and shakes her head. "Yeah. So how did this thing with this Robin Hood happen?"

Regina frowns. "I'm not sure what you mean, dear._" _

"You must've gotten to know each other during your year back in the Enchanted Forest, right?"

Regina is wearing a look on her face that is a mixture between disgust and disbelief. "You want to _gossip_?"

Emma shrugs. "Is it gossip if you're here to talk about it with me? I'm just wondering how it happened."

Regina stiffens and her expression hardens with whip-like speed. "Is it so hard for you to believe that someone might take an interest in me?" She asks, her voice suddenly icy.

She watches Emma roll her eyes, and then raise her palms apologetically. "Of course not, Regina. Don't get defensive."

Regina huffs, but relaxes slightly.

"I guess I'm just curious. I didn't have you pegged as open to romance when we said goodbye, and I'm just curious about what happened. I mean, you were devastated after losing Henry, no doubt, and probably not in the best mindset for a relationship. So what did he do during the past year that made you look at him with his family like you'd lost something?"

Regina stares at Emma, trying to figure out how to respond. She's caught off guard by Emma's bold questions, because it's really none of her business, yet part of her wants to tell Emma and just _unload_. She hasn't spoken of her whirlwind romance with Robin to anyone. Nobody besides Tink knows about the tattoo, and she's not sure she's ever articulated – even to herself – why she decided to take such a risk – both literally and figuratively – with her heart.

"Listen, " Emma begins, "you don't have to. I just thought you might want to…Nevermind. But I'm an okay listener, for the record." She smiles one of those tight-lipped, gentle smiles that, to Regina, have come to indicate sincerity.

Regina watches Emma swallow the last of her drink, her head tilted back and her throat moving with each swallow. When she finishes, she lays her drink down and moves to get up, but something in Regina rails at the idea because if Emma leaves, Regina figures she'll lose this opportunity to be candid with her. And for some inexplicable reason, she finds that's not something she wants.

"No, stay!" she all but blurts out, and Emma seems mildly startled by her outburst. Regina grabs the whisky and pours them both new drinks.

Emma sits, staring intently at Regina. "You okay?"

"Yes," Regina replies, looking for all the world like she's composed, but her knuckles are white around her tumbler, and she's staring at her drink as though she might be able to vaporize the alcohol with her gaze alone.

"Okay," Emma says slowly.

Regina stays silent for a while, and Emma doesn't say anything. She knows that Emma is waiting her out, letting her do this at her own pace, and that means a lot to her. There's no pressure to do anything she doesn't want to do, and all of a sudden she feels a very real appreciation for Emma. Very few people have ever made her feel as though she's in control and has a choice, and maybe there's something to be said about that, though she won't allow herself to think too hard about it right now.

"It's not so much that I lost something, but rather that I lost the possibility of something."

She takes a drink and continues.

"When I was still newly married to the king, I was bitter and angry and had just begun learning magic with Rumplestiltskin. I was desperate for control over my own life." She sighed and sipped from her drink. "Rumple showed up one night while I was eating dinner and began taunting me about the inescapable darkness that I'd begun to slip into. You know, the usual fare."

Emma nods.

"I was so angry when he left that I shook the parapet of the balcony overlooking the castle courtyard. It was a rickety old thing, and it broke. I fell, and I would've died if Tinkerbelle hadn't showed up and saved me."

"You fell, right?" Emma asks. "You didn't …" her sentence fades.

"Jump? No. But there were times when I think that I wouldn't have minded hitting the concrete that day."

Emma looks at her with sympathy that makes her uncomfortable, and she chalks her own honesty up to the alcohol and the turmoil of the past few days.

"She decided that I needed to find love again, so she took some pixie dust and we followed it to a tavern where Tink pointed to a man with a lion tattoo and said 'he's your soul mate.'"

"So what did you do?"

"I didn't go in. I was too afraid and I was still grieving Daniel. But Tinkerbelle thinks I ruined his life because of it."

Emma looks annoyed at that. "Yeah, right."

"We met in the Enchanted Forest, and he was always with us, always on my last nerve. I couldn't stand him. And then we arrived here, and I saw his tattoo the first time we met."

"So you decided that his tattoo was enough for you to trust him with your heart?" Emma's tone is disbelieving, and Regina shoots her a dirty look.

"What? It just seems a little…flimsy to me. That's all. And it's not like you're the most trusting person ever."

"Yes, well," Regina sighs. "Perhaps it was."

"What happened between there and Storybrooke?"

Regina exhales slowly through her nose. She thinks about it, and considers that if she hadn't seen his tattoo, it's likely that she never would have looked at him twice. "I-I saw his tattoo. He's my soul mate."

"And yet you make your own destiny?" Emma remarks, though not unkindly.

Regina pauses at hearing her own words from the day before spat back at her. Maybe she'd only liked the idea of him, of what he could give her. He had been kind, and he had been _there_ and he had a tattoo…

She doesn't know how to reply, so she drinks instead.

"How's baby Charming?" Regina asks some time later.

Emma shrugs. "Fine, as far as I know," she says, but she doesn't sound happy.

Regina picks up on Emma's tone and raises an eyebrow. "I don't think you could sound more excited if you tried," she quips drily.

"I'm happy for them," she says, but she doesn't sound it.

"I am!" she insists.

Regina just stares at her knowingly, and Emma keenly avoids meeting her eyes.

"You're lying." Regina watches as a blush begins to creep up Emma's cheeks.

"I think, though," Regina continues, "that it might be okay for you to hate them a little bit right now."

Emma doesn't say anything for a long moment, but then she whispers into her drink, "I'm not good enough for them."

Regina knows that's not true, and that it would kill Snow to know Emma feels this way, but at the same time it strikes her as funny that they're both be feeling a certain unworthiness – no matter how irrational – tonight.

"You are," Regina reassures her, and then she tells Emma what she wishes she'd heard when she'd felt alone, or angry, or betrayed, or hurt: "But you are allowed to feel that way."

Emma shoots her a small, watery smile.

"Just don't take it too far. We don't want you turning green."

Emma's eyes widen. "Did you just make a joke?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have a sense of humor."

Emma laughs, and Regina thinks it's the first real, mirthful smile she's seen on Emma's face since she got back from New York.

Regina is ready for this night to be over.

She heads into the kitchen with Emma at her heels. She thanks Emma for her company, and then she says, "You can stay, if you like."

"Um, what?"

Regina takes in the disbelief on Emma's face, and considers telling her to forget it. She blames the alcohol when she doesn't and says instead, "You are welcome to stay in one of my guest bedrooms if you like."

She wants Emma to say either yes or no and not to ask for any explanation, but she looks so incredibly puzzled that it's out of the question.

"Why?"

Regina shrugs nonchalantly. "In case you don't want to be alone, or go back to your parents' place with a screaming baby who will disrupt your sleep, or want to be where Henry is. It's up to you," she says, taking Emma's empty tumbler from her hands and placing it, along with her own glass, in the dishwasher. "You've had too much alcohol to drive home, but I can call someone for you. Your parents, or Miss Lucas, perhaps?"

When she turns around, Emma is standing directly in front of her, so close that they're almost sharing the same air. Emma's eyes are shining just a little, and though she's gotten pretty good at deciphering Emma's mannerisms and the emotions that show in her eyes, there are so much conflict warring in those green pools right now and Regina can't tell which will win out. Is she more angry than she is hurt? Or is she more lost than she is everything else?

Before she can say anything, though, Emma's hands are cupping her face and Emma's lips are on hers. It's a simple kiss, just a gently laying of lips on lips. Regina doesn't close her eyes, and she's almost afraid to move, but she admits that it's not entirely terrible to be kissed by Emma Swan.

Emma makes no move to deepen the kiss, and so Regina gently pushes Emma back, just enough to look into her eyes.

"What was that for?" she asks gently, her hands coming up to surround Emma's wrists.

"A thank you."

Regina shakes her head. "You don't owe me anything. I don't expect anything from you."

Emma's thumbs are gently caressing her jawline, and she tries to draw in a deep breath but has trouble doing so. She's not sure where this sudden physicality is coming from, and she doesn't know why she feels okay with it, given that Robin is fresh in her mind. Maybe they're both a little needy tonight. Maybe it's the alcohol. Maybe it's the fact that Emma is _here _and not with the pirate. Emma is _here_ and Robin is not.

"It doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to."

Emma's words are unexpected, and they touch her broken and raw heart. No pressure, no expectations. No pixie dust or notions of destiny or obligation.

Regina gently reaches out and palms Emma's cheek.

"Not today," she whispers, the unspoken _but maybe someday_ ringing through the silence.

Emma nods understandingly and lowers her hands from Regina's face.

"Can I stay the night?"

xxxxx

Regina takes her hand and leads her upstairs.

Ten minutes later, after borrowing sleep clothes and a toothbrush, she's beneath the covers of Regina's bed with just a foot of space between them.

They're lying on their sides, facing each other.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks. Because she'd seen the hurt in Regina's eyes earlier, and while she knows Regina has changed, she doesn't want to see her slide back down the slippery slope to darkness.

"I will be," she says through a yawn. "Are you?"

Emma nods, and Regina smiles a smile that causes Emma's insides to dissolve in the acid of her guilt.

_I'm not_, she thinks. _I want to go back to New York and I want to take Henry with me. My parents didn't waste any time having another child after they said goodbye to me, and then they decided it would be a good idea to name it after my ex-boyfriend. I had a perfect life in New York with a son I never gave up and I had a boyfriend that I loved and it turns out it was all a lie. I have two separate lives in my head and I don't have the first fucking clue how to deal with that. And to top it all off I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about the fact that I kissed you in your kitchen tonight._

She needs to tell Regina at some point. She probably should have already. But this silence is so beautiful, and Regina's bedclothes smell like apples and she knows Regina will be so angry. She doesn't want to lose whatever's left of this peace with the woman lying next to her. She figures, as her eyelids begin to droop and sleep begins to take her, that Regina can remain in the dark for a few more hours.

xxxxx

When Regina wakes up in the morning, Emma is gone. It doesn't worry her because Henry is still asleep in his bed and so she knows that Emma hasn't left for good.

This is okay, she thinks, as she begins making breakfast for her son.

She hums as she begins whisking eggs.

She's feels ready, finally, to be the person and the mother she has always wanted to be.

**XXXXX**

When there's a frantic knocking on her door later that evening, she expects to see either Emma or Henry.

When she opens the door and sees Snow on the other side, red-faced, sobbing and utterly distraught, she is caught off guard.

"Snow, what's – "

"Regina," Snow gasps, reaching out to grab Regina's upper arms. Her grip is like iron, and her voice is panicked.

Regina retreats a few paces, bringing Snow into the house.

"What is it? Is it the baby?" Her heart gives a jolt at the thought.

"She's leaving!" Snow cries.

"Who?"

"Emma!"

"_What?"_

Emma hadn't mentioned leaving last night. Had she been planning this all along? Disbelief and anger begin to coil in her stomach.

"She's going back to New York! She's packing at Granny's right now!" Snow all but shakes her in her desperation. "_Talk to her Regina!"_

Regina frowns. Surely Emma's not planning on taking Henry with her, not without discussing it first.

"Why do you think she'd listen to me?".

"Because for some reason I will never understand the two of you understand each other. _Please, _Regina," Snow begs. "Please. I just need you to try."

Regina sighs. "Okay. Where's Henry?"

"With David." Snow sniffs, her lower lip trembling.

"She's planning to take him with her, isn't she?"

Snow nods tearfully, and the confirmation makes Regina see red.

"Go back to David and Henry. I'll talk to her."

xxxxx

Regina all but storms into Emma's room at Granny's; it's seeing the two suitcases open and half-packed on the bed that makes her lose control. She grabs Emma and pushes her up against the far wall of the room. It's been a long time since she's felt pure, unadulterated anger such as this.

"What the hell, Regina?" Emma bucks against her grip, but she holds fast.

Regina is reminded of a hospital supply closet two years ago, with Emma's arm at her throat and Emma's eyes leaking tears as she screamed into her face. She wonders if the same raw desperation she'd seen on Emma's face that day is present on her own right now.

"Did you really plan to leave for New York with my son without telling me?! Did you really think I'd be okay with that?"

Emma takes a deep breath, and the resistance within her is exhaled with the air in her lungs.

"He's my son, too. We had a good life in New York and I want to get back to it."

Fury surges through Regina, tightening her fist around Emma's shirt. "How long have you been planning on leaving?"

When Emma doesn't answer her, she knows that Emma had never planned on staying in the first place. She remembers the vulnerability she'd shown Emma the previous night and she feels cheap and hurt for a moment, before realizing that her bruised feelings can't be a priority over Henry right now.

"I was going to tell you," Emma offers weakly, and she has the momentary decency to look at least a little guilty.

"But not before my son's bags were packed and ready to go, clearly," Regina sneers.

She thinks back again to the night before, and it feels like this Emma in front of her is someone else entirely. Emma's disregard for her feelings and dismissal of her role as Henry's mother hurts more than she wants it to.

"Did you forget that _I_ was the one who gave you that life?"

"No. Of course not," Emma replies, looking anywhere but at Regina's face as she tries to move past the irate woman before her.

"That life was built on _my_ memories, Emma!" Regina roughly grabs Emma's forearm and pulls her back so that they're face to face. "I gave you pieces of his childhood that were mine _alone_ and would have stayed that way if not for Pan's curse. Emma, we're even now – equals, in terms of Henry, and the fact that you'd just up and run back to New York – "

Emma slams her suitcase shut. "Except we're _not_ equals, Regina! Because _your _memories of Henry's childhood actually happened and are real! But I drank a stupid potion, given to me by a stupid pirate and it turns out that I actually gave him up! Do you have _any idea_ what that feels like!?"

Regina softens at Emma's outburst.

"No," she sighs, "I don't, but I imagine that it hurts a great deal. Pan's curse was never supposed to break, and your memories were never supposed to come back. Maybe those memories aren't real for you, and I know that's causing you pain right now on top of feeling displaced by your family - "

Emma opens her mouth to protest, but Regina speaks over her.

"But those memories are real, and they did happen, and you have them in your mind and your heart. And now, you know Henry exactly as I do. _Exactly_ as I do."

Emma sighs. "Doesn't change the fact that he was safer and happier in New York. I don't owe you anything. It's your fault I grew up without a family. Maybe we're even now in terms of more than just Henry."

The comment stings, and while normally she'd desperately try to cover it up, right now she doesn't care if Emma sees her hurt.

"No," Regina says softly, "maybe you don't owe me anything. But you owe Henry. You will _always_ owe him, just as I always will, because he is our son."

Emma says nothing and stares down at her boots.

"Are you afraid you'll have to share him now, just as I was when you first came to town?"

"No!" Emma exclaims, and it feels like she means it, but she can see that Emma is rapidly losing control of her emotions.

"Then what?"

Emma stutters, fumbling to answer a question to which Regina already has the answer. She's scared, and she's running. She recalls one of the first conversations when Emma had come to Storybrooke. "I'm not worried," she'd said, because Emma never stayed in one place for very long. It's funny, she thinks, now that Emma is desperate to leave, Regina wants to make her stay. What's even funnier, is that she currently seems to have found some sort of tenuous equilibrium in her life, and Emma is the one losing control, even though she's now got everything she'd ever dreamed of having.

Emma shakes her head. "I've made up my mind, Regina." She beings zipping up the bags on the bed.

Regina is at a loss. She knows she won't get any further with Emma today, not when everything is so raw. Still, she can't resist throwing one last blow.

"You're a coward, Emma Swan," she spits, her voice low and tremulous.

She moves to the door, thinking back to the previous night and the feel of Emma's lips on hers. She turns back once more. "You know, I thought we were past this." She laughs derisively. "More fool me, I suppose."

Emma doesn't say anything.

"But make no mistake," Regina continues, and she feels vapors of the Evil Queen seeping into her veins. "I meant what I said to Henry earlier. I am never letting him go again. So if you are going to shut yourself off from your family and the people who care about you to return to your old coping mechanism of running away when things get to be too much and have the audacity to take _my son_ with you, you are woefully mistaken."

She doesn't mean to sound preachy, and she's very aware of the pot-kettle nature of her tirade, but she'll say anything to keep Emma from leaving town with her son.

She turns on her heel, not even bothering to see the expression on Emma's face before leaving the room.

She makes it half way down the corridor before she hears a frustrated shout and the sound of shattering glass. The sound is satisfying, yet it only makes her feel more empty with each step she takes.

**XXXXX**

Regina enters their apartment quietly and immediately sees the hopeful look on Snow's face. It hurts when she shakes her head gently and Snow dissolves into tears, loudly sobbing into David's shoulder.

Henry turns the corner and moves towards her. He looks back at Snow. "We're leaving, aren't we?"

Regina takes his face in her hands. "Henry, what do _you _want to do?"

"I – " He looks back at his grandparents and then back to her. "I want to be with my family. I want my family to be together."

Henry looks devastated and she hates Emma Swan for doing this to them.

She pulls him close, clutching him to her in a crushing hug.

xxxxx

Later, she sits in her study drinking cider and thinking hard about how to fix this. Henry's going to go with Emma for now, because there are some things he wants to do in New York. He wants to see his friends, too, who are all worried about him after his abrupt departure and lame explanations.

This idea had filled her with dread, but he'd promised her vehemently that he'd come back on his own if he couldn't convince Emma and she needs to believe in her son, just as he believes in her.

But the thought of him leaving just after they'd shared true love's kiss fills her eyes with tears. She refuses to be separated from him again, even if only temporarily. Especially now that she can't trust Emma to come back to Storybrooke.

So she makes a decision and heads upstairs to pack a bag.

**XXXXX**

Henry had texted her to let her know that he and Emma would be eating at Granny's before they hit the road incase Regina wanted to see them off.

She'd smirked when she'd seen the text. Little did he know…

When she shows up just as Emma and Henry are leaving Granny's, holding a small suitcase and wearing a severe expression on her face, Henry beams at her and she knows immediately that she's made the right decision.

"What are you doing here?" Emma snaps at her, looking simultaneously furious and thoroughly annoyed.

"I'm coming with you." She makes sure there's no room for argument.

Emma scoffs at her. "No you're not."

"I am," Regina insists. "I made a promise to Henry. I refuse to let him go again. And since it's clear that you can't be with your family right now and are dead set on running away, the only way for Henry and I to be together is for me to come to New York with you."

Emma glares at her, silent and angry.

"Listen, either I come with you now or I see you there, but I just got my son back and I won't be separated from him again."

Emma doesn't budge. "You're not coming with us."

"Emma…" Regina implores lowly, hoping that the savior hears her unspoken plea. _Please._

Her son is the one who saves her from having to lay down her pride altogether. "Mom." He pulls gently on Emma's hand. "Please."

Regina watches Emma's will crumble and it's suddenly a lot easier to breathe knowing she's won.

She gets in the front seat while Henry takes her suitcase and throws it into the back of the bug before climbing in himself.

Emma says nothing as she puts the car in gear and pulls away from Granny's, away from Storybrooke, and away from her family.

They're several miles out of town before she turns to look at Emma, who is fighting desperately to keep silent as tears stream down her cheeks.

An unfamiliar flood of sympathy rushes through Regina as she takes in Emma, who looks more like a frightened child than a woman who has slain dragons and saved kingdoms. Emma's got a lot to work through, she thinks. Startlingly, she realizes that she's not opposed to seeing Emma through to a better emotional place, just as the woman beside her has seen her through to a place where she can give up the thing she loves most and use light magic.

She's still furious with Emma for even thinking of taking Henry without talking to her, but her anger has softened somewhat. Optimistically, perhaps foolishly, she determines that she will help Emma through her pain. Emma has taken her place in a sea of turmoil, while Regina has never felt surer of herself. She realizes that, aside from Henry, Emma doesn't have anybody else right now.

_This is what good people do_, she thinks, but it's also more than that. It's what friends do, it's what people who care about each other do.

She reaches out and places her hand gently over Emma's on the stick shift and gives her fingers a gentle squeeze.

Emma doesn't squeeze back, doesn't acknowledge her gesture at all.

Eventually, she pulls her hand away, and they pass the rest of the ride in silence.

* * *

**So. There's part 1. I have two more parts mapped out. Interested? **

**Again, thank you for reading! Leave me a note to let me know what you think!**


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